Stutter
by Glo15Bug
Summary: 3 words. 1 day. Little over 6 months after they met. What could make it any less than perfect? ... Maybe it's the incessant babbling of that icy dragon in his ear. Or the irritating family of hers. Meh... worth a shot or maybe two. ;-P


**This took me forever. I wrote it with the helpful prompts from MomoPeachFlower. This is part one of two. I wrote it mostly listening to P!nk, but also some Marianas Trench. ****So... let me know what you think! :3**

* * *

_I froze looking over at her. She stared at me with wide midnight blue eyes. Her black hair swayed gently in the breeze. I scoffed, irritated with myself. She was a human girl._

"_Is this yours?" I sighed, disgustedly, with myself. She flinched at the sound of my voice and nodded._

"_You should be more careful." I ordered, kicking the ball towards her._

* * *

The memory shifted to a muddle of voices.

"_Will you be on our soccer team?" _

"_Toshiro!" _

"_Are you really interested with a girl from the human world?"_

"_You're late!"_

"_Kick it in!"_

"_Taicho, can this girl see us?"_

"_My brother is Ichigo Kurosaki."_

"_Kurosaki's sister?!"_

"_You really are elite…" _

"_Even if you're just an Elementary student…" _

"_You're leaving?"_

"_T-then… good-bye… Toshiro…"_

* * *

Toshiro stared out the window, her voice dancing in his head.

"Hitsugaya-taicho?" His snapped out of his thoughts looking up at Nanao Ise, who looked more than annoyed. She pushed up her glasses and gripped the clipboard in her arms tighter.

"Are you listening now?" She asked shortly. The white haired captain nodded. Ise began to speak again, and once more, his thoughts drifted away.

* * *

_She limped forward. One of her numerous male friends lurched forward and held her up. I leaned against the goal post, not realizing what was going on._

"_Time out!" She called, noticing me. She started forward, still leaning on the weird-ass kids who had an arm around her._

"_Toshiro." She looked annoyed._

"_You're late." I was looking down at my soul pager. _

"_I never said I was coming." I replied. _

"_So you're not here to play?" She sounded upset. I furrowed my brow. I looked up at her red face. Grass was in her hair and mud caked up the side of her face. I stared at her for a moment longer. _

"_Hey little elementary brats, you forfeit?" Karin whipped around._

"_Shaddup, ya jackass!" She yelled stomping her foot. She then spun around hid her face in her hair, whimpering. I looked down at her leg. A large purple mark already consumed half of the pale skin. _

"_Your leg… Are you hurt?" I demanded, pushing off the goal. She looked down at the undoubtedly agonizing bruise and grinned shaking the tears off her face._

"_This, little scratch? Are ya kiddin' me? Heck no!" I glared at her. I knew she was lying. I looked out at the older boys across the field, and sighed. _

"_Fine. I guess I have to play...IF you guys wanna win, right?" I grimaced. I'm so weak. I thought as they tapped me into the game._

* * *

"Hitsugaya-taicho!" Nanao yelled. He, again, jumped. He stared up at her from where he was sitting. She sighed and regained control. She set the paperwork in front of him.

"I explained it twice. If you need help… Come and ask for it when you're in a frame of mind where you can listen to me." He furrowed his brow.

"This paperwork, Nanao… is in English." He stared down at the letters in front of him.

"You don't say?" Nanao rolled her eyes after walking out the door. Toshiro stood and started for the door.

"I'm going to the fourth." He yelled back to his fukutaicho, Matsumoto.

* * *

Sitting down next to her, Toshiro sighed.

"No change… taicho." Isane reported. Toshiro nodded sitting down. Isane excused herself, leaving them alone. He stared at Momo, who was unconscious, and had been for the last two weeks.

"Good evening, Momo." He whispered leaning down over her, like he always did. He stood there a moment and closed his eyes. Karin's bright face appeared illuminated by the sunlight behind her. He snapped his eyes open and stood erect. He sat next to Hinnamori and stared at nothing ahead.

"I went to the world of the living on a mission. I met someone there. She's the younger sister of Ichigo Kurosaki. Her name is Karin. She has a pale complexion. Her black hair only makes her look paler, regardless of the fact that she's constantly outside." He smiled looking up at Hinnamori. She didn't move. He sighed and continued.

"She has eyes that are almost black. Until the sun shines on her face, that is, then they shine a beautiful shade of blue. You should see her smile. It's amazing…" He trailed off. He looked down at his hands for a moment.

"I played soccer with her. She's really good. I actually enjoyed myself. … I actually enjoyed myself…" He thought back to the time when he tried playing a sport with Hinnamori.

* * *

"_I don't wanna do this, Bed-wetter!" I groaned. Momo grinned at me._

"_This'll be fun, Shiro!" She chimed. I snapped to her direction._

"_Oi! My name isn't 'Shiro'! It's HITSUGAYA!" I hollered. She laughed again throwing the Frisbee in my direction. I originally had no intention of following it. Watching it move, I couldn't help my self. Running for it at full force I leapt at the last moment. I had gone too high. I caught the disk square in the mouth and landed flat on my back. Next thing I saw was Momo standing over me laughing._

"_I didn't say you had to catch it like a dog, Shiro." I spit the thing from between my teeth and growled pushing her aside. _

"_I am not a dog. And my name is HITSUGAYA!"_

* * *

Toshiro looked up at Hinnamori.

"I don't know why I hadn't told you about it before. I actually went before… before…" He stopped. He grunted in aggravation rubbing his face with his hand. He looked at her sleeping face.

"What the hell am I doing?" He asked no one. He stood up.

"_Don't let what you've always wanted slip through your fingers, Shiro. You'll try to reach for it again and it'll be gone." _Momo's words echoed through his head.

_Dammit am I stupid! _He thought. _It's almost been a year. She's probably forgotten. _He sighed. **  
**

"I'll be back … later…" He slid the door shut and sprinted headlong down the hall of the fourth, narrowly avoiding Unohana-taicho. Spinning around, he bounced off something soft and squishy. His face met the floor and he grunted, slowly pushing himself up.

"Matsumoto… what the hell are you doing here?" He groaned checking his nose.

"Where are you going?" She asked pulling him up by his collar. He reached back and loosed her hand from his uniform.

"I'm requesting leave." He said straightening out his haiori. Matsumoto bent over glaring him in the eye. He looked up. Leaning away, Toshiro finally spoke.

"What?" The blonde grinned.

"Oh, nothing!" She giggled. He furrowed his brow and WALKED the rest of the way to the door.

"Isane… was he talking about his most recent trip to the human world?" The lavender haired woman raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, why?" Rangiku grinned.

"He met a human gi-ahh!" She was cut off by her captain's grip around her wrist tugging her after him.

"I'll tell you later!" She called back to the now intrigued fukutaicho.

"I'm going on a holiday. I'm leaving now." Toshiro let go of Rangiku, once inside of his office. She sat on the couch and grinned.

"Taicho… Are you interested in a girl from the world of the living?" He looked up.

"Shut up, Matsumoto. I'm going to visit Grandma Haru." She made an annoyed face.

"Fine, then. Don't tell me. But I already can tell why you're going, taicho. It's written all over your face. And you've never been this excited to leave your work." Toshiro stopped for a moment. He ignored her.

"At least try to do a little bit of paper work. I'll find it if you don't and I don't like searching for my documents." Without another word, Toshiro left.

* * *

Upon entering the world of the living, Toshiro was met with a familiar scene. The busy streets, the excited students running past him, completely oblivious to his existence, he remembered he hated most of it and especially the fact that he was so much smaller than everyone else. But hell'd freeze over before he'd admit it. Everyone seemed shorter, now, though. _Damn, maybe I did grow. Sleeping does work. _He smirked to himself heading towards Urahara's shop.

Toshiro opened the door to the shop and stopped. The red headed kid was tugging on the little girl's bangs. Casually, he stepped in between them and pulled her away from him, glaring down at him. Urahara appeared.

"Ah, Toshi! You probably want a gigai, don't you?" Toshiro dropped his shoulders. '_Toshi'? __Are you fucking kidding me?_

"Yes."

"Good, I know someone who's been waiting forever to see you again."

"Yes, it's been awhile since I've visited Granny." Urahara stopped and looked over at him.

"Child prodigy, huh? More like teenaged dumbass." He muttered under his breath.

"What?"

"Oh! Nothing!"

* * *

_Last time I'm going there for the rest of the week. _Toshiro thought in annoyance shoving his hands in his pockets. He heard a familiar voice from in front of him. He smiled picking up his pace. Looking down across the memorable soccer field, Toshiro spotted Karin among her group of boys. A scowl crossed his face. _Doesn't she have any female friends?_ She had grown, he then noticed. Her arms and legs had become longer and more slender. Her hair had lengthened as well. She used her hand to roughly jerk it out of her eyes. She was squatting beside one of her teammates. She glanced over at him and after doing a double take, grinned.

"Toshiro!" She yelled. He felt sort of triumphant as she abandoned her team and ran towards him. Every one of them glared at him. "You're late." She beamed. Toshiro sniffed.

"I never said I was coming." He replied. "But I guess I'll have to play…. That is… IF you want to win." He sighed. Karin threw her fist in the air. Once again, they tapped him into the game. Karin called the game to play and they both took off.

"Toshiro!" Karin kicked the ball out from under the other team's hold, ducking as she slid under him. She rolled back to her feet and took off after Toshiro. He remembered the face of the kid who had hurt Karin the last time he played. The poor bastard was unluckily chosen as goalie. After quick-thinking and careful aiming, Toshiro took one more step, and then kicked the ball into the air. The ball caught the kid in the forehead, knocking him to the ground. Satisfaction filled Toshiro as the other team called a time out.

"Dude! You drilled him in the face!" One of his teammates accused. The white-haired captain shoved his hands in his pockets.

"Sorry, I was aiming for the goal. I guess he jumped for it at the last moment." Karin stepped forward casting a sideways glance at him. **Boy, you're caught. She knows exactly what you did.** Toshiro flinched at her annoyed posture, though amusement shone in her eyes.

"Are you guys gonna be a bunch of pansies? Get up ya baby!" He sat up; a round red mark already showing brightly, the cold didn't particularly help.

"Let's get back to the game." He hissed.

The final score was 22-3. Toshiro smiled at Karin when she jumped in excitement at the end of the game. His smile was quickly replaced with an irritated glower when her buddies surrounded her. He turned and huffed, seeing his breath.

"Toshiro." He spun around, seeing her standing inches from him.

"What?" He spit glaring at the boys behind her.

"Where are you going?" They continued to get louder.

"Away from here." He curtly replied.

"Can I come with you?" All the men surrounding her froze, including Toshiro. Regaining himself, he turned and gave her a small smile.

* * *

"You really saved us out there." She grinned, kicking the ball. "After he got hurt, I had no idea what we were going to do." She continued.

"Uh huh." Toshiro mentally kicked himself for his socialization skills.

"So how long are you going to be here?" She asked. Truth be told, he had no idea.

"None of your business." She huffed in annoyance.

"What kind of answer is that?" She returned. "Why did you come here?" She asked, ignoring his first answer.

"I…I… had something important to … to… look into…" She shrugged.

"That's no more of an answer than the first answer." She moaned. _**Ask her something about herself…**_Hyourinmaru whispered in his ear.

"When is your birthday?" _**Smooth… When I said that… I was expecting something… Subtle? **_He looked back at Karin. Her cheeks were flushed and Toshiro couldn't tell if it was because she was blushing, or because she was cold.

"It's over… It actually passed right after you left, back in May." She laughed. He kicked himself again… _She'd even said about it…_

"What about you?" He was taken off guard. _**Well, Fabio? Answer the girl.**_

"December 20th." He replied. Karin jogged up next to him and walked backwards facing him.

"That's tomorrow!" She cried. Toshiro stopped.

"Yes?" She looked flabbergasted.

"You don't celebrate your birthday?" He shook his head.

"I purposely take leave before my birthday to avoid it." _That and I totally forgot it was tomorrow. _ Karin turned around and walked beside him.

"It is you, Toshiro." A soft voice spoke.

"Grandma Haru." He smiled.

"Ah, and you have a girlfriend with you, I see?" He looked over at Karin. Her face looked confused.

"Actually, Granny, she's not my girlfriend." _Yet. __**With your mad skills I'm surprised.**_

"Why are you following me?" He growled at the dragon.

"Why not? I have nothing else to do." Karin answered. The old woman laughed.

"There's no need to be bashful, Toshiro." The woman laughed.

* * *

"I'm so glad you came to visit." Granny grinned setting the candied beans down. Karin grinned.

"I'm glad Toshiro brought me!" Karin grinned. Toshiro looked over at her smiling face. He felt paralyzed. _Amazing. _He thought to himself.

Motion caught his attention. Looking to the far corner of the small garden, a small boy stood there. Granny looked up and smiled.

"Ah, Youske, have you been over there this whole time?" She laughed standing and walking towards him. He ran to meet her. He slid his tiny hand into hers as she turned around.

"Toshiro, Karin, this is Youske. He's been staying with me lately. He wants to see snow." _**Boy, you can't leave him. He's-. **__A Whole… _Toshiro's face turned serious. He jumped hearing Karin's voice.

"Hi! I'm Kurosaki Karin!" She grinned. The Whole whimpered and slid behind Gandma Haru. She laughed.

"He's shy. Don't think too much of it." Toshiro ripped his eyes from Youske to the candied beans. He immediately lurched forward taking a handful. He looked up at Karin's frozen smile.

"You really are an old man." Toshiro put his head down and shoved a bean in his mouth.

"Shut up."


End file.
